Dr. Steffanie Strathdee is an infectious disease epidemiologist renowned for her research on the intersection of HIV and drug use, having generated more than 600 scholarly publications. She is Associate Dean of Global Health Sciences and Harold Simon Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Diego where she co-directs the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics. She leads a multidisciplinary team of research on HIV risk behaviors among people who inject drugs on the Mexico-US border.

In 2009, she and her team were awarded the Leadership Award in International Collaboration from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, who also granted her a MERIT award for her substance use research in Tijuana. In 2018, she was named by TIME magazine as one of the 50 Most Influential People in Health Care.